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Andara and I went to do laundry last night at a public laundromat. After we got our clothes in the washers, I grabbed our totes to put them in the car, and saw that there was a kid, three years old or so, pushing on the lock bar to the big washer we were using for our non-delicates. I told the kid, "Don't touch that, it's not yours." At no point did I lay a hand on the child, curse at him, or even raise my voice. He left, and I put it out of my mind.
A few minutes later, a woman comes over and tries to tell us not to address her child, that we should come to her first. She was polite about it - right up until we failed to meekly agree with her. Andara responded something to the effect of, "He shouldn't be messing with things, then, and we have no way of knowing who his parents are." The woman started getting aggressive and belligerent, and I tried to get a word in edgewise, but she was shouting over me, refusing to let me speak. The very fact that I was refusing to acknowledge her superior judgement with regard to her child was enough for her to threaten to call the cops on me. At no point did she even acknowledge that her kid was doing anything wrong - she seemed to think that the washers' locking mechanism was perfect and unbreakable (and went as far as to shove on the lock bar herself a few times to "prove" her point), and that alone absolved him of any possible misbehavior.
After several moments of trying to get a word in edgewise, with her ignoring every single word I tried to say and making blanket derogatory comments, I finally blurted out, "Would you shut the fuck up and LISTEN for a few minutes?" She got extremely huffy after that, and I ended my end of it, as it was obvious that she wasn't interested in two-way communication. Despite the fact that the conflict was essentially over, she DID go and call the police on us. With how fast a police officer was there, I have to assume that she called 911 over a verbal argument.
He listened to her side of the story, and then came to speak to us. I told my side of the story, the officer suggested that I get parents rather than dealing with the kid directly (although he definitely had a, "why am I here?" sort of look), and confirmed that the issue was over as far as we were concerned, and that was all there was to it.
Andara saw the kid climbing all over the benches and counters later. I wonder if she'll get sue-happy if her precious idiot child gets hurt because of her own lassiez-faire parenting. =>_<=
My opinion is that if the parent isn't correcting a child who is acting out in public - doing something dangerous, or threatening someone else's property (and, IMO, attempting to open a running washing machine qualifies as both) - it's up to anyone and everyone around to correct the child's behavior, without getting physical about it. The child doesn't live in a little bubble where only the parents can interact with him; he can affect others, and others can affect him. If his parents insist on this magical bubble around the kid, he's going to learn that he can get away with pretty much anything by finding a scapegoat to aim the parent at.
A few minutes later, a woman comes over and tries to tell us not to address her child, that we should come to her first. She was polite about it - right up until we failed to meekly agree with her. Andara responded something to the effect of, "He shouldn't be messing with things, then, and we have no way of knowing who his parents are." The woman started getting aggressive and belligerent, and I tried to get a word in edgewise, but she was shouting over me, refusing to let me speak. The very fact that I was refusing to acknowledge her superior judgement with regard to her child was enough for her to threaten to call the cops on me. At no point did she even acknowledge that her kid was doing anything wrong - she seemed to think that the washers' locking mechanism was perfect and unbreakable (and went as far as to shove on the lock bar herself a few times to "prove" her point), and that alone absolved him of any possible misbehavior.
After several moments of trying to get a word in edgewise, with her ignoring every single word I tried to say and making blanket derogatory comments, I finally blurted out, "Would you shut the fuck up and LISTEN for a few minutes?" She got extremely huffy after that, and I ended my end of it, as it was obvious that she wasn't interested in two-way communication. Despite the fact that the conflict was essentially over, she DID go and call the police on us. With how fast a police officer was there, I have to assume that she called 911 over a verbal argument.
He listened to her side of the story, and then came to speak to us. I told my side of the story, the officer suggested that I get parents rather than dealing with the kid directly (although he definitely had a, "why am I here?" sort of look), and confirmed that the issue was over as far as we were concerned, and that was all there was to it.
Andara saw the kid climbing all over the benches and counters later. I wonder if she'll get sue-happy if her precious idiot child gets hurt because of her own lassiez-faire parenting. =>_<=
My opinion is that if the parent isn't correcting a child who is acting out in public - doing something dangerous, or threatening someone else's property (and, IMO, attempting to open a running washing machine qualifies as both) - it's up to anyone and everyone around to correct the child's behavior, without getting physical about it. The child doesn't live in a little bubble where only the parents can interact with him; he can affect others, and others can affect him. If his parents insist on this magical bubble around the kid, he's going to learn that he can get away with pretty much anything by finding a scapegoat to aim the parent at.
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